The Daily Show Lampoons Trump's Violent Games Roundtable
"Look man, the truth is, many countries around the world have figured this out."
President Trump hosted a roundtable discussion with games industry stakeholders and critics yesterday to talk about the potential impact of video game violence. Like most high-profile political events, it was fodder for the late-night comedy circuit. The Daily Show's Trevor Noah took a swing at lampooning the attempt to draw a link between video games and real-life tragedy.
The centerpiece of Noah's argument focuses on Japan, which is the third-highest consumer of video games in the world, but suffers dramatically less gun-related crime than America. In fact, in 2015 the country had only one gun murder. "I'm sorry but if you're the only gun death in a country of 120 million people, you probably deserved it," Noah quipped.
The meeting on the whole was described as respectful but occasionally contentious. The White House opened the meeting with a montage of violent imagery from several video games, removed from context, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Fallout 4, and others. Media Research Council president Brent Bozell suggested tougher regulation on games, and Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) said afterwards that such regulations should also apply to other media like movies.
The industry's side, represented by the ESA and ESRB among other leaders, refuted the connections. They had an ally in Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) who pointed out there's been no evidence that the Parkland shooter was motivated by playing video games. He did advocate increasing measures to make sure parents are aware of resources like the ESRB to monitor their kids' entertainment.
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